Call for Pardon of IRA Inmates Imperils Peace Plan : N. Ireland: A political ally of the rebels insists on an amnesty. Britain’s prime minister rejects the idea.

The British-Irish peace accord on Northern Ireland appeared headed for serious trouble Monday when Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams insisted that IRA prisoners be given amnesty as part of a long-term agreement.

Adams, whose group is the legal political wing of the outlawed Irish Republican Army, said in the Northern Ireland capital of Belfast that it was “obvious” a settlement must include the release of IRA prisoners. But British Prime Minister John Major, in London, rejected the idea, saying there are no “political prisoners” in British jails but only criminals.

Major said he would make no deal on their release for a pact on troubled Northern Ireland.

And Britain’s former minister for Northern Ireland, Michael Mates, declared, “No one is going to bargain for peace, and if this is part of a bargain Sinn Fein (wants) for peace, they won’t get it.”

Major is also reported to be unhappy with remarks by Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds over the weekend that amnesty for prisoners was one of the “areas for discussion” once the 25 years of violence ended in the riven province.

With London and Dublin divided on the issue, Adams stepped into the fray, declaring: “The issue of political prisoners has been raised by Mr. Reynolds. A negotiated settlement will remove the symptoms as well as the causes of the conflict. As part of this, it is obvious that all prisoners must be released.”

Sinn Fein claims that about 700 Irish republicans are in jail in Northern Ireland, Britain and Ireland.

Adams rejected warnings that the IRA faces a stepped-up British and Irish crackdown if it does not call off its campaign of violence in Ulster, as Northern Ireland is also known, and Britain.

At the same time, Ulster Unionists--largely Protestants who want to remain part of Britain--responded swiftly to Adams’ call for amnesty by warning that they would withdraw their “tentative approval” of the declaration agreed to last week if the governments went beyond it.

Last week’s British-Irish declaration invited the IRA--which favors unity with Ireland--to lay down its arms in exchange for participation in peace talks on Ulster’s future.

But late Monday, an IRA bomb exploded in Belfast, the Associated Press reported. A police statement said a soldier and a male civilian were slightly hurt in the blast near Woodbourne police barracks in west Belfast and that a woman was treated for shock.

The IRA claimed responsibility in a statement to Belfast news organizations.